Barnabus Stinson is a fictional character portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris and created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). One of the show's main characters, Barney is known for his brash, manipulative and opinionated personality. He is a womanizer known for his love of expensive suits, laser tag, and Scotch whisky. The character uses many 'plays' in his 'playbook' to help him have sex with women. In later seasons, he has a few serious relationships, then marries, divorces, and has a child with an unnamed woman from a one-night stand, and then marries the same woman again (as implied in the alternate ending). Barney's catchphrases included "Suit up!", “Go for Barney”, "What up?!", "Stinson out", "Legendary", "Wait for it" (often combining the two as "legen—wait for it—dary!"), "Daddy's home", "Haaaaave you met Ted" and "Challenge accepted". Critics have praised the character and credited Harris’ performance for much of the show's success. Barney is considered the show's breakout character. Development The show's creators envisioned Barney as what Bays later described as a "large, John Belushi-type character"; nonetheless, Megan Branman, the casting director for How I Met Your Mother, invited Harris to audition. He assumed that he was invited solely because the two were friends and did not believe he had a chance of winning the role. Harris later said: "Since I considered myself in the long shot, I didn't care that much, and I think that allowed a freedom." His audition centered on a scene playing laser tag, and Harris attempted a dive roll, accidentally knocking over a chair and slamming into a wall in the process. CBS executives enjoyed his playing and soon offered Harris the part. The character is named for a heroin dealer in the James Ellroy novel L.A. Confidential. Character Barney Stinson is one of five main characters on How I Met Your Mother. He is a manipulative, oversexed businessman in his thirties who always wears a suit, likes women with "daddy issues" and is frequently willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion. Throughout the earlier seasons, Barney is a huge womanizer, and has been described as a "high-functioning sociopath" by his best friend, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). Barney has a plethora of strategies and rules designed to meet women, sleep with them, and discard them. Through several seasons of the show, four of the main